The Human Medicine Regulations 2012 came into force on 14 August 2012. The regulations have introduced some policy changes, amongst which is the following:

‘the Regulations consolidate provisions enabling a pharmacist, if in the exercise of their professional skill and judgement they believe it is appropriate to do so, to make changes to a prescription relating to the name of the product or its common name; directions for use of the product; and precautions relating to the use of the product – the Regulations remove the requirement for the pharmacist to attempt to contact the prescriber before making such change; This aims to enable pharmacists to use their expertise and professional judgement to make such changes in a more timely way’